Q1. ".but do you know of ANY MUSLIM who holds his country in higher esteem than his allegiance to fellow Muslims & Allah."
Ans. I know not one but several. Almost every educated and rational Muslim (and there are many of them) don't support terrorism in any form and don't show any undue allegiance to their own kind. I can start with my friends and end with our superstars in Bollywood (they are our cultural ambassadors after all)
Q2. "It's rare that Muslims condemn the terrorism that their "fellow brethren" commit in the name of Allah.There are obviously exceptions(like D. Kalaam), but they are far and few in between."
Ans. Thats not true at all. Several Muslims all over the world condemn terrorism. Its unfortunate that we continue to ask them to prove their allegiance. In India so many have had candle light vigils and press conferences condemning
Its the media which could do better here by highlighting their protests and condemnations.
And let us stop asking every fellow Muslim to come down and condemn terrorism. Why should he be answerable to some mad mans acts? Why is it necessary for us to see a fellow Muslim condemn terrorism? Will we not trust him otherwise? Why should a normal, rational, balanced, educated Muslim be pinned to the wall time and again and asked to re-prove his allegiance, re-prove his faith, re-prove his love for his country and fellow men? Why are we hell bent on bullying them?
I'll tell you why! Because we are in the majority and think its our right to ask them these questions and expect them to bow down their heads every time an act of terrorism happens around the world. Lets not begin to discriminate our fellow Muslim brethren on this basis. That is the beginning of hatred. That is the beginning of separatism.
Q3. "I realize that generalizations are dangerous and there are good and bad in any race/religion, but when one considers that 95% of all terrorism in any given year is related to Muslims, one has to wonder..."
Ans. Yes generalizations are dangerous. period. They must stop. period. No two ways about that. Otherwise every Hindu will be a Gujurat mass murderer and Babri Masjid breaker. SO generalization are dangerous. They serve no purpose other than to vent feelings and tempers. Its not the way of a rational mind. period.
95% is a fictional statistic. But lets go with that. So 95% of terrorism is created by Muslims. So what % of terrorist-fanatic-anti- Islamic Muslims are we talking about here? 95%!...NO. We are talking somewhere in the ratio of 0.05%.
Thats also is a statistic. Statistics don't help. Ill feelings and generalizations don't help. Virtual condemnation of an entire religion (which is fundamentally based on peace) simply does not help.
Q4. "Pakistan seems to have only one agenda on its national policy..ie DESTROY INDIA..I somehow don't see Indian Muslims(SRK!!?..?bad example) saying anything that condemnd this..
Ans: Yes, Pakistan is a rogue military state. What else do we expect from them? Support from a rational, peace loving United States? Well you have it. Its no secret that the US uses Pakistan as a shoulder to shoot from.
Pakistans ANTI INDIA policy has nothing to do with Muslim Indians or even Muslims!
Why should it? That I am afraid is simply not the right way to think.
Indian Muslims have condemned violence. If the recent controversy for SRK's 'My Name is Khan' is anything to go by. Where he was repeatedly asked to prove his love for his country because he felt Pakistani players were given a raw deal in the IPL. The Shiv Sainiks (Warriors of Shiva) threatened to block the release of his movie. Which they did. The broke property and threatened his children. Will any Hindu, please speak up for the Shiv Sainiks activities? Who will speak for the Godhra riot victims? Who will speak for Muslims massacred in the Mumbai riots? Who will speak for the Kashmiri Muslim or Kashmiri Pandits? Who will speak for atrocities that happened on both sides during partition? Muslims? Hindus?
Are we asking any of our Hindu brothers to condemn all of that? Are we putting them up against the wall? Do they have to answer anyone? Is a Muslim asking them to answer?
Bottom Line:
It doesn't help condemning Muslim people. We are better of trying to find immediate and lasting peace to the Israeli-Arab conflict. The root problem.
America's so called 'foreign policy'. The root problem.
Who created and supported the Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, even before the rest of the world knew about them? The root problem.
Someone said. Love is our biggest weapon. We need to use it. We will all be the better for it. Muslims and Non Muslims.
Lets not ask Muslims any questions. Lets find those answers together.
:-) Peace, May Allah be with all of us. (And by Allah I mean the Lord, I mean Brahma,Zarathustra, Buddha etc). Beter still, may rationale and sanity prevail upong human kind.
